Mr. Livermore, whose home was in San Rafael, died in the Novato Community Hospital after suffering intermittently from heart problems over the past few years. He was 95.

He served eight years as secretary for resources under then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, often negotiating compromises that protected the Sierra Nevada from highways and other development.

"Ike was a Republican. He was a good person to have there because he was so pro-wilderness," said Martin Litton, a friend for 60 years. "If he had an obsession at all, it was to keep the Sierra Nevada wild for the whole stretch from Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park south to Walker Pass. And that meant keeping the trans-Sierra roads out of there."

He was known for his love of wildlife, hunting and the outdoors, and took pride in having crossed all of the 50 of the highest passes in the Sierra -- both ways. He started a mule packing outfit in the southern Sierra in 1929, and ran it for more than a decade, often taking Sierra Club members on trips.

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Later, he started a sawmill on the family ranch, Montesol, which straddles Napa, Lake and Sonoma counties, and a kiln in Cloverdale, where he made patio furniture and other products.

In 1952 he joined Pacific Lumber Co. as treasurer and served throughout the 1960s at a time it was primarily a family company logging sustainably in Humboldt County. In 1967, the newly elected Reagan appointed him to his Cabinet, in which he served until 1974.

He persuaded Reagan to prevent the proposed Mammoth Pass Highway, which would have cut the Sierra Nevada wilderness in two, a region that is now the Ansel Adams Wilderness connected to the John Muir and Hoover wildernesses, said Litton.

At his request, Reagan also removed a highway that would have gone to a proposed Disney Corp. ski resort at Mineral King, which is now protected in Sequoia National Park, said Litton.

The Redwood National Park was established under the administration, which also decided against building the Dos Rios Dam on the Eel River, the largest proposed water project in California.

Bill Lane, a friend and former owner of Sunset magazine with his brother Mel Lane, agreed that Mr. Livermore had a great influence on Reagan.

Lane first started working for Ike Livermore in 1937 as a mule packer when he was in high school. Later, he renewed their friendship when Mr. Livermore went to Sacramento to work for the governor. "I got to know him very well because of my interest in national parks. Ike was always someone I admired very much. He was very passionate and very dedicated."

Mr. Livermore was a descendant of a pioneer family. His great grandfather, Horatio Gates Livermore, traveled overland from Maine to California during the Gold Rush in 1850, and later became a state senator from El Dorado County.

His grandfather, Horatio Putnam Livermore, and father, Norman Banks Livermore, were instrumental in the development of the state's hydroelectric resources. The former helped build Folsom Dam, and the latter was a founding board member of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

His mother, Caroline Sealy Livermore, was a Bay Area conservationist active in the protection of Angel Island, the Marin Headlands and Richardson Bay.

He was the eldest of five sons, and grew up on Russian Hill in San Francisco. At 15, he rode his horse from Ojai (Ventura County) to Big Sur. He graduated from Stanford University, where he was captain of the baseball team and played for the United States exhibition baseball team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He later graduated from Stanford Business School. During World War II, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and took part in Allied landings at Sicily, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Palau.

He married Virginia Pennoyer in 1943. Throughout his life, he was active in the management of the family ranch with his four brothers, John, Put and the late George and Bob Livermore.

His son, David, the Nature Conservancy's Utah state director, said: "He was kind to all, loved to tell jokes and stories, and had a wonderful sense of humor. He lived his life with honor, fairness, kindness and truth, and was still chopping wood and doing rope tricks for this grandchildren well into his early 90s."

Mr. Livermore is survived by his wife; five children, Edith Livermore of Evanston, Ill., Pauline Jeffers of Milwaukee, Norman III of Moraga, Samuel of Ross, and David of Salt Lake City; and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco at 2 p.m. Dec. 27. Friends may make donations to the Audubon Society, Save-the-Redwoods League or the Yosemite Fund in his memory.